Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned Sunday {that a} go to to Israel by prime US diplomat Marco Rubio underscored the energy of ties between the allies, days after an unprecedented Israeli strike focusing on Hamas leaders in Qatar drew broad criticism.
The assault on the US ally and key mediator in Gaza truce talks has prompted Arab and Muslim leaders to collect for a present of solidarity in Doha, the place Qatar’s prime minister urged the world to reject “double requirements” and maintain Israel to account.
US chief Donald Trump rebuked Israel over Tuesday’s strike, and Rubio acknowledged to reporters earlier than departing Washington that the president was “not blissful” about it, however he insisted the assault wouldn’t “change the character of our relationship with the Israelis”.
However, the strike has put renewed pressure on efforts to safe a ceasefire in Gaza, and Rubio allowed that the USA and Israel have been “going to have to speak about” its affect.
Netanyahu has defended the operation — which focused Hamas officers gathering to debate a brand new US ceasefire proposal — saying killing the group’s leaders would take away the “major impediment” to ending the Gaza warfare.
On Sunday, Rubio provided prayers at Jerusalem’s sacred Western Wall alongside Netanyahu and US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, an AFP correspondent reported.
Netanyahu mentioned afterwards that the go to confirmed the Israeli-American alliance was “as robust, as sturdy because the stones within the Western Wall that we simply touched”.
Underneath Rubio and President Donald Trump, “the alliance has by no means been stronger”, he added.
Rubio’s major conferences with officers, together with Netanyahu, will happen on Monday earlier than he departs on Tuesday.
His go to coincides with Monday’s emergency summit of Arab and Muslim leaders in Qatar, whose Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani addressed a preparatory assembly on Sunday.
“The time has come for the worldwide neighborhood to cease utilizing double requirements and to punish Israel for all of the crimes it has dedicated,” he mentioned, including Israel’s “warfare of extermination” in Gaza wouldn’t succeed.
“What’s encouraging Israel to proceed… is the silence, the shortcoming of the worldwide neighborhood to carry it accountable.”
– ‘Fixed terror’ –
Regardless of mounting worldwide criticism, Israel has in latest days ramped up efforts to grab management of Gaza Metropolis, the territory’s largest city centre, telling residents to evacuate and blowing up quite a few high-rise buildings it mentioned have been being utilized by Hamas.
As of late August, the UN estimated that round a million folks have been dwelling within the metropolis and its surrounding areas, the place it has declared a famine it blamed on Israeli help restrictions.
AFP photos confirmed a column of automobiles and other people on foot fleeing Gaza Metropolis southwards via a desolate panorama of destroyed buildings.
“We live in fixed terror amid relentless shelling and highly effective explosions,” mentioned Sara Abu Ramadan, 20, a resident of Gaza Metropolis.
“Why such huge firepower in these rockets? What’s their aim? We’re dying right here, with nowhere to hunt refuge… and the world simply watches.”
Gaza’s civil defence company mentioned a minimum of 45 folks had been killed since daybreak Sunday in Israeli strikes across the territory.
Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas imply AFP is unable to independently confirm the main points supplied by the civil defence company or the Israeli navy.
On Friday, the UN Normal Meeting voted to again a revival of the two-state resolution, in defiance of Israeli opposition.
However, Israel retains the backing of its strongest ally and largest arms provider, the USA.
– ‘Alarming passivity’ –
At dwelling, opponents of the Netanyahu authorities have sought to stress ministers to finish the warfare in return for the discharge of Israeli hostages held in Gaza.
On Saturday, the Hostages and Lacking Households Discussion board, the principle marketing campaign group for the captives, accused the Israeli premier of being the “one impediment” to liberating the hostages by sabotaging efforts to strike a deal.
Of the 251 folks taken hostage by Palestinian militants in October 2023, 47 stay in Gaza, together with 25 the Israeli navy says are lifeless.
Brian Katulis, a senior fellow on the Center East Institute, mentioned Rubio was unlikely to push Israel towards a ceasefire.
“There may be an alarming passivity in truly attending to a ceasefire in Gaza,” mentioned Katulis, who labored on Center East coverage beneath former president Invoice Clinton.
The warfare was sparked by Hamas’s October 2023 assault on Israel, which resulted within the deaths of 1,219 folks, most of them civilians, in keeping with an AFP tally of official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory marketing campaign in Gaza has killed a minimum of 64,871 folks, additionally largely civilians, in keeping with figures from the well being ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers dependable.